I've written about Brazil pre-Lula and post-Lula and spent the last five years covering all aspects of the country for Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal and Barron's. Meanwhile, for an undetermined amount of time, and with a little help from my friends, I will be parachuting primarily into Brazil, Russia, India and China. But will also be on the look out for interesting business stories and investing ideas throughout the emerging markets.

Corporations Investing More In Emerging Markets Than U.S., Europe

Corporations invested more in emerging markets last year than they did in the advanced economies. The trend is now in place for this to continue.

For years, economists have been talking about a structural shift in the global economy. In that shift, multinationals would have to choose where to spend their capital and ad budgets. Do you increase spending in the United States, or do you open a new factory and service center in Asia?

That question was answered in 2012.

For the first time ever, global corporations invested more in emerging markets than the core economies of U.S., Europe and Japan, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) in their 2013 World Investment Report, released on Wednesday.

Developing economies absorbed more foreign direct investment (FDI) than the developed ones, with four developing economies ranked among the five largest recipients in the world. Of course, China is in the top spot. Developing countries also generated almost one third of global FDI outflows, continuing the trend of cash rich corporations in foreign countries investing in the advanced economies.

The European Union alone accounted for almost two thirds of the global FDI decline.

Corporations Show EM The Money

Global FDI fell by 18% to $1.35 trillion in 2012. The recovery will take longer than expected, mostly because of global economic fragility and policy uncertainty. UNCTAD forecasts FDI in 2013 to remain close to the 2012 level, with an upper range of $1.45 trillion. As investors regain confidence in the medium term, flows are expected to reach levels of $1.6 trillion in 2014 and $1.8 trillion in 2015. However, significant risks to this growth scenario remain, UNCTAD said.

FDI flows to developing regions witnessed a small overall decline in 2012, but there were some bright spots. Africa bucked the trend with a 5% increase in FDI inflows to $50 billion. This growth was driven partly by FDI in extractive industries, but investment in consumer-oriented manufacturing and service industries is also expanding. FDI flows to developing Asia fell 7%, to $407 billion, but remained at a high level. Driven by continued intraregional restructuring, lower-income countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Viet Nam are bright spots for labor-intensive FDI. In Latin America and the Caribbean, FDI inflows decreased 2% to $244 billion due to a decline in Central America and the Caribbean. This decline was masked by an increase of 12% in South America, where FDI inflows were a mix of natural-resource-seeking and market-seeking activity, particularly from China.

The Trends For 2013 & Beyond

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) continued to be the leading sources of FDI among emerging investor countries. Flows from these five economies rose from $7 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2012, accounting for 10% of the world total. Their multinationals are becoming increasingly active, especially in Africa. Petrobras, a Brazilian oil company, has been investing in countries like Angola for years. China continues to invest in Brazilian agricultural resources.

In the ranks of top investors, China moved up from the sixth to the third largest investor in 2012, after the United States and Japan. They continue to invest heavily in frontier markets.

Within the emerging world, though, FDI flows into developing Asia decreased by 7% to $407 billion in 2012. This decline was reflected across all subregions but was most severe in South Asia, where FDI inflows fell by 24%. China and Hong Kong were the second and third largest FDI recipients worldwide, and Singapore, India and Indonesia were also among the top 20.

Driven by continued intraregional restructuring, lower-income countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Viet Nam were attractive FDI locations for labor-intensive manufacturing, UNCTAD said.

Despite the decline in FDI to the developed world, the U.S. remains No. 1 for foreign corporate investments. Companies invested over $160 billion in the U.S. last year. In second place was China with $121 billion and Hong Kong in third with $75 billion.

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I am not surprised in Banana republics world wide you can pay workers slave wages and no vacations or sick days.

You have all sort of cheap labor to manufacture all the stuff we developed world people purchase. At the same time these international capital get richer and most average Americans get their jobs sent overseas.

A few men become wealthy but at a great cost and lower living standard to the majority of americans.